Ready For The Blame Game

Shank does a phone interview with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and, in true Shank fashion, makes it as uncomfortable as possible right off the bat:

Belichick voices support for Patricia and Judge as Patriots get set to open their season

Red Auerbach was 48 when he coached his final game with the Celtics.

Bill Belichick is 70, readying for his 48th season in the NFL, his 28th as a head coach.

Seventy puts Belichick closer to Red from “Shawshank” than Red on Roundball.

In 2009, a 57-year-old Belichick stated, “I won’t be like Marv Levy and coaching in my 70s, I know that.”

“I wish I hadn’t said that,” Belichick said Thursday in a telephone interview from Florida. “I was probably thinking of what I would feel like. Now, there’s what I actually feel like, and those are two different things. That was not one of my better statements.”

Which is precisely why Shank brought it up.

The Patriots open Sunday at Miami, Belichick’s 23rd season as New England’s head coach. The Patriots went 10-7 last year, then got blown out by the Bills in the playoffs.

New England’s 2022 preseason was unimpressive. No longer able to lean on Tom Brady or trusty assistants Nick Caserio (general manager of the Texans), Josh McDaniels (head coach of the Raiders), Dante Scarnecchia, and Ernie Adams (both retired), Belichick has put a bull’s-eye on his back, declining to name coordinators and hiring cronies/failed head coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to take charge of second-year quarterback Mac Jones.

“I think they’re both good coaches,” said Belichick. “Ultimately, it’s my responsibility, like it always is. So if it doesn’t go well, blame me.”

Don’t worry. We will.

Of course he will!